BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - A trip to the Windy City awaits the 13th-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University women's basketball team ahead of the holiday break as the Titans travel to the Ratner Athletic Complex to battle No. 22 University of Chicago. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, and will air on FloSports behind a paywall.
    Illinois Wesleyan holds a 7-2 record ahead of Tuesday's tilt and has won five in-a-row. Most recently, the Green and White used a strong second half to blow by Elmhurst University, 81-59, in the suburbs Saturday, Dec. 13. Chicago, which will return to the hardwood for the first time in 10 days, sports a 5-2 record on the year. The Maroons outlasted Calvin University, 73-65, in overtime Dec. 6 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
    As a result of the University Athletic Association's agreement with FloSports Tuesday's game will be broadcast exclusively on the platform behind a paywall. The subscription service offers monthly and annual plans. The monthly option carries a $19.99 monthly price tag, while the annual plan is billed at $8.99 a month for a total of $107.88. Matt Sosler will have a free audio only broadcast of the action that will simulcast to WESN and the CCIW Network, while live stats will also be available. Links can be found on the women's basketball page of iwusports.com.

BARDIC JOINS IWU'S COMMA CLUB: After eclipsing the 1000 career point mark at the tailend of last season, Ava Bardic became the 28th member of Illinois Wesleyan's 1000-point club Saturday, Dec. 13. The Lincolnshire, Ill. native, who scored 312 as a freshman at NCAA Division II University of Illinois-Springfield, put up a game-high 26 points at Elmhurst over the weekend. Bardic's 1009 points as a Titan rank 27th in program history. She accomplished the feat in just 67 games donning the Green and White.

LET IT RENA: Illinois Wesleyan received a much-needed spark of the bench at Elmhurst, Dec. 13, as freshman Rena Robinson put together a breakout game. The rookie scored a career-high 14 points, doubling her previous-best mark, on 4-of-9 shooting with a pair of triples. The San Jose, Calif. native added a pair of assists and a rebound in the win.
    Robinson led a bench scoring effort that saw IWU outscore the EU bench, 27-2. It marked  the Titans' second-highest bench scoring total of the year.

FRESHMEN FORCES: The Green and White's freshmen stepped up in a big way at Elmhurst, Dec. 13, helping lead IWU to a come-from-behind win over the Bluejays. Three rookies scored in double figures as freshmen Asia Kobylarczyk, Caitlin Leyden, Rena Robinson, and Kaidyn King combined for 51.9 percent of IWU's scoring in the contest. Kobylarczyk went for 15 points, while Robinson poured in 14 points off the bench. Leyden tallied 11 points and King contributed two.
    It is the largest percentage of points to come from a freshmen group since the 2021-22 season. That year, Lauren Huber, Kate Palmer, and Mallory Powers combined for 52 points in IWU's 80-73 win over Millikin in the CCIW Tournament Championship Feb. 26, 2022, accounting for 65 percent of the Titans' scoring. Huber notched 27 points to lead all scorers. Palmer knocked down four three-pointers en route to 16 points, while Powers chipped in nine points.

MATCHUPS WITH THE MAROONS: Tuesday evening's tilt will mark the 18th meeting between Illinois Wesleyan and Chicago. The series is tight with IWU leading 9-8, as no team holds a win streak longer than three. IWU has won the past two matchups.
    Last season, the Titans led from wire-to-wire in a 71-52 victory in Bloomington Dec. 17, 2024. Lauren Huber went for 21 points and eight rebounds, while Ava Bardic and Kate Palmer chipped in 16 and 14 points, respectively.

OLD FACES, NEW PLACES: When the Titans and Maroons square off Tuesday, Illinois Wesleyan fans will see a familiar face on the opposite bench. Chicago head coach Michelle Gardner-Bilek, in her second season leading the Maroons, graduated from IWU in 2013, following an outstanding career in which she helped the Titans to the 2012 NCAA Division III Championship. A captain as a senior, she scored 426 points, grabbed 204 rebounds, and added 122 assists.

TURNING UP A NOTCH: Since conference play got underway Dec. 3, senior Ava Bardic has taken her play to another level. The Lincolnshire, Ill. native is averaging 24.3 points per game through three CCIW contests. She has connected on 47.6 percent of her shots (20-of-42) and 80.0 of her free throws (28-of-35). Bardic's elusiveness and shifty ballhandling has seen the senior convert 15-of-19 shots inside the arc.
    Bardic's 24.3 points per game lead the CCIW in league play, while her 4.0 steals per game are second-most and trail only Caitlin Leyden (5.7 spg).

SHE'LL STILL TAKE THAT: Senior Sawyer White, who has been equally as well-known for her bench griddy celebration, was originally made famous for wreaking havoc on the defensive end throughout her Titan career. With 291 steals in her career, White needs just six to surpass current all-time steals leader Rebekah Ehresman, who accrued 296 during her outstanding career as a Titan from 2014-2018. White ranks second on the all-time steals list, ahead of Sydney Shanks (233). Her sophomore season, White set the program's single season steals record with 112 takeaways.
    In the CCIW, White sits 116 steals behind Millikin's Jennifer Falbe, who had 404 takeaways in her career as a Big Blue from 1996-2000. In White's sophomore season, she set a single season steals record with 112, which ranks second all-time in a single season in league history.
Moreover, White's 291 career thefts ranked eighth-most among active women's basketball players across Division I, II, and III. She has the second-most steals to her name of any current NCAA Division III student-athlete, trailing only Hunter's Alexa Charles.

THE 55TH YEAR OF IWU WOMEN'S HOOPS: Illinois Wesleyan is in its 55th year of women's basketball and has compiled a 765-510 overall record. IWU's .600 all-time win percentage includes a 366-204 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin mark.

POLLING PLACE: Illinois Wesleyan remains in the national polls through the first few weeks of the 2025-26 season. The Titans are 13th in the D3hoops.com Top-25 and No. 16 in the WBCA poll.
    IWU is one of two College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin team featured in both polls, as  Carroll is 14th in the D3hoops rankings and tied for 22nd in the WBCA poll.

SECOND HALF SURGE: The Titans' win over Elmhurst, Dec. 13, came on the back of a 56-point second half. IWU's scorching finish saw the Green and White put up its most points in a half since dropping 58 at North Park Dec. 4, 2024. Illinois Wesleyan trailed by as many as six in the contest, but put up 26 points in the third quarter and a season-high 30 points in the fourth to soar to the win. The Titans' 30-point fourth quarter marked the program's highest single quarter total since opening with 30 points in the first quarter against North Central Feb. 19, 2025. IWU went on to defeat NCC, 79-55, in Naperville.

ON THE HORIZON: The Green and White will endure its longest break of the year, taking time off for the holidays before traveling to the Sunshine State, Dec. 28-29. There, IWU will square off against two top-25 programs in Bethel University and Wisconsin Lutheran College. The Titans take on Bethel Sunday, Dec. 28, at 12 p.m. ET followed by a 2 p.m. ET tipoff against WLC, Dec. 29.